Backstage Library Works

08/25/2026

Every few years, our team invites survey participants to share how they are conducting authority control maintenance and with which resources. This is a topic that has changed much in the last decade, particularly in relation to available authority control vendors and the depth of bibliographic enrichment that is possible by today’s systems and standards.

The following is an overview of our latest survey conducted in July 2026, in our latest blog - link in the comments!

08/20/2026

The Museum of American Glass in West Virginia has an incredible collection of glasswork, from cups and decorative dishware to figures and sculptures and more. While our team had the pleasure of visiting the collection in person, the museum has a growing online collection that you may browse as well - check it out for yourself on their website!

Which piece is your favorite?

08/05/2026

Through a broad range of applications, the Collections Stewardship "funds projects to preserve and make available physical and digital collections important for research, teaching, and public engagement in the humanities."

If you plan to partner on your upcoming project, we can help, and we're always here to answer questions while you prepare your grant response!

NEH’s Collections Stewardship grant program is now accepting applications!

Application deadline is December 15, 2026. Learn more: https://shorturl.at/QYgax

07/29/2026

(Link in the comments!) Successful digitization projects rely on pre-planning. Knowing your collection is step one. Step two is planning out your metadata and necessary file derivative while keeping your DAM's requirements in mind.

In this blog, we'll outline the primary use cases for TIFFs, JPEGs, JPEG-2000s, and PDFs—all image derivatives that are provided, free of charge, with any Backstage digitization project.

07/24/2026

Today, our Utah offices will be closed for Pioneer Day; Pennsylvania and field offices remain open. Thank you!

07/23/2026

WHAT'S NEXT: We're looking forward to our time in New Orleans next week for the Society of American Archivists conference! Let's talk archives! What are you working on? What's coming up soon? And how can we help?

07/22/2026

We're all set up this morning at NAGARA - grab a coffee and chat! ☕

07/14/2026

WHAT'S NEXT: We've got another conference coming up close to home. This time next week, we'll be at NAGARA in Philly. Stop by booth 102 and say hello! We've got something fun for those of you pursuing digitization projects...

07/03/2026

We hope that everyone celebrating this weekend enjoys a wonderful time with friends and family. Keep safe and make sure to hydrate against the heat for those states affected by high temperatures. 🎆🌞

06/29/2026

Come listen in on a day in the life of our digitization and microfilming camera technicians! Hear the hum of equipment and the rustling of pages. The intermittent pops are the sound of the flash units firing, making sure that objects are illuminated just-so when the camera shutter opens. The whirring comes from our pneumatic stands raising or lowering the camera as needed to achieve the desired resolution with every shot.

Warning for flashing lights! ⚡